The triops is a hermaphroditic crustacean (males are very rare--a good thing for you misandrists), and is a temporary pond-dwellers. They lay eggs in these ponds, and when the ponds dry up, the eggs remain in a state of suspended animation until filled back up. Want a triops? Just take eggs and add water. Think sea monkeys.
Speaking of which, I'm surprised these critters haven't become a more popular novelty pet (they are sold as pets, but haven't caught on). I think it has to do with the name. Some clever marketer needs to come up with a better one. If you can name a shrimp a sea monkey, you can name a different crustacean just about anything you want.
Any ideas?
Thanks for the new pet, Kira.
Photo source:
MyTriops.com
Jul 5, 2008
What's in a Name
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11 comments:
Perhaps the novelty wears off when they start eating each other. We raised them in our inverts lab for fun, and as they grew, the larger ones preyed on the smaller ones - even with adequate space and food.
Ocean Orangutans
Water Lemurs
Pond Gorillas
I've kept these as pets. They're really neat!
Your cute-o-meter is going up again with these creatures :)
I had seamonkeys too... but they died... something to do with the instructions being in japanees :P
I want new ones!
Is it hard to keep Triops as pets?
Ps; I always called them "krioele-beestjes" (I'm dutch :P) wich kinda translates into "squirmy-critters" or "swarmy-critters". Not very marketeble, I guess :)
Stickin with the primate theme. I like it.
My roommate used to keep some as pets. They are quite interesting to watch and they are not difficult to keep as pets. But they haven´mt got a very long lifespan though....
We had some here in the office which were marketing under the name 'Aquasaurs'! They were pretty cool and, yes, they did eat each other which was sad. They also ate the Sea Monkeys we introduced to their tank, which was not a surprise. : ) Anyway, soon there was only one big Aquasaur left. He eventually died and is now preserved in someone's freezer. Yes, this is a weird place to work.
Sherry at SofN
Aquasaurs! That's a good one.
They actually DO market these things. Not as well as Sea Monkeys, but any science center or natural history muesum is bound to have them in their gift shop. I had them, and didn't expect them to get as big as they did. Odd little buggers.
Rabbits have two eyes
And whales have two eyes
And eagles have two eyes
But triops has three eyes
Triops has three eyes
Two eyes on a face
Are usually enough
But triops has got
One that looks up
And one that looks around
And one to keep an eye
On the other pair of guys
Triops has three eyes
@ Anonymous:
Those sea monkeys would have soon died anyway, because they live in very salty water, while triops lives in freshwater.
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